¡Ah Discordia!

Combining a Latin goddess (Eris in the more familiar Greek form, and best-known as the central figure in the religious cult/elaborate put-on of Discordianism) and Spanish punctuation in one's debut album title is almost always cause for the Warning Bell of Extreme Pretentiousness to be rung, and loudly. Overall, however, ¡Ah Discordia! is an extremely earnest but solidly unpretentious piece of mainstream indie rock. San Diego quintet the Transit War have few particularly unique attributes: their twin-guitar attack (usually featuring a fuzzy, distorted drone underneath a clean, trebly arpeggiated lead), and the way they favor sudden volume and time signature shifts are both resoundingly familiar. However, lead singer Jim Hughes has a conversational vocal style, and although the lyrics are uniformly humorless, he thankfully avoids the preening "I'm so bloody sensitive" bleat of far too many post-emo pop singers, and the band never fetishize technique or sound at the expense of melody. Also, the minute-long interlude "Discordia" is a strikingly pretty and largely acoustic bit of atmosphere that both provides a respite from the indie rock basics of the rest of the album, but suggests an ear for arrangement and dynamics that could hold the band in good stead in the future.